7-month-old dies in hot car in South Georgia

A 7-month-old died after being found in a hot car Tuesday at a motel in Kingsland, police told Jacksonville.com. It is the first hot-car death in Georgia this year.

Authorities arrived at the Quality Inn on Robert Edenfield Drive after being notified that a baby wasn’t breathing. Officers found the baby dead at the scene, according to Jacksonville.com.

A witness told the news site they heard a woman at the hotel yelling that her baby was choking and screamed for him to “save my baby.” The witness said he tried to do CPR, but blood was coming out of the baby’s nose. The child also felt hot.

Temperatures in the region reached 90 degrees just before thunderstorms struck the area, according to the online news site.

“We are attempting to handle the investigation with the utmost sensitivity and care out of respect for the family as possible to ensure the integrity of our investigation,” Kingsland Police Department Inspector Donald Belcher told the news site.

It was not known if the child and the caregivers were staying at the motel or were just parked there.

The hot car-related death is the first in Georgia for the year. The state has had the fifth-highest number of hot car fatalities in the country since 1995, with 37, according to KidsandCars.org.